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Thursday, June 11, 2015

When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you shall say to him, 'Because the Lord has need of it.'" So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them. But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?" And they said, "The Lord has need of him." Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road. Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying:

"'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!'
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."

- Luke 19:28-40

Yesterday, we read that Jesus spoke another parable, because He
was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would
appear immediately. Therefore He said: "A certain nobleman went into a
far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he
called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to
them, 'Do business till I come.' But his citizens hated him, and sent a
delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over
us.' And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom,
he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be
called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by
trading. Then came the first, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten
minas.' And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were
faithful in very little, have authority over ten cities.' And the
second came, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.'
Likewise he said to him, 'You also be over five cities.' Then another
came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a
handkerchief. For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You
collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.' And
he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked
servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not
deposit and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my
money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with
interest?' And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him,
and give it to him who has ten minas.' (But they said to him, 'Master,
he has ten minas.') For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want
me to reign over them, and slay them before me.' "

When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. And it
came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the
mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go
into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt
tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. And if
anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you shall say to him,
'Because the Lord has need of it.'"So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said
to them. But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to
them, "Why are you loosing the colt?" And they said, "The Lord has need
of him." Then they brought him to Jesus. Jesus makes His entry into Jerusalem. It's a public picture or icon of the arrival of the Messiah into Jerusalem (which was prophesied to come from the East, Mount Olivet). People are filled with certain expectations of the Messiah, particularly as political deliverer from the Romans, a nationalist hero and hope, a great warrior. But this is a different kind of Kingdom that Jesus is proclaiming and everything that happens will go toward making that shockingly vivid picture that declares a radically different point of view of the Kingdom, that St. Paul will call "a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles." In this passage, He instructs His disciples to get a donkey's colt, revealing aspects of this Kingdom: He's not riding into Jerusalem as a great kingly warrior in a chariot, but on a colt, and furthermore His prescient knowledge of exact events to happen there tells us more about this Kingdom that is not confined to the worldly.

And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road. People spread their clothes on the road as a way of paying reverence to a King. My study bible says this is spiritually interpreted as our need to lay down our flesh -- even our lives -- for Christ.

Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives,
the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God
with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: "'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!' Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" These are the ones who have been with Him through His ministry, and have followed Him on the road to Jerusalem. They praise and rejoice for all the great works they've witnessed. The praise they shout is from Psalm 118 (see verses 25 and 26) which was already associated with messianic expectation. This was recited daily for six days during the Feast of Tabernacles (the Feast of the Coming Kingdom), and seven times on the seventh day as branches were waved. It is a further affirmation, a great picture or icon of the Messiah.

And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke
Your disciples." But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if
these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." Jesus vividly describes the exuberant joy in those who have witnessed His ministry with its many great wonders and teachings. Many patristic commentators have made analogy to the stones of which Jesus speaks, negatively comparing the Pharisees who wish to silence these shouts to those who once worshiped idols of stone but repented, and to the murderers -- harder than stone -- who will also declare His name and His praise. St. Ambrose cites the "living stones" referred to by St. Peter who will proclaim and praise after Jesus' crucifixion, while the Pharisees will be silent. St. Ephrem the Syrian writes: "At his birth and at his death, children were intertwined in the crown of his sufferings" (Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron 118.2).

St. Ephrem the Syrian also notes on this passage that Jerusalem was in turmoil at Jesus' birth, just as it was in turmoil again and trembling the day that he entered it. So what we have, in addition to everything else in this picture or icon (if one will imagine it) is a world in which there are tremendous problems of what we call evil: strife, violence, victimization, oppression, injustice of every kind, disloyalty to one another in community, disparate political movements including armed insurrectionists, and every form of chaos we can imagine that accompanies such problems. And of course, we will read of the scheming, lying, and manipulation of the leadership as they calculatedly work with the Roman authorities in order to persecute Jesus. In some sense, Jerusalem is like boiling pot, with a lid just barely kept on it, as people await something, someone, a deliverer from their national troubles. But the leadership can't recognize this Leader who rides on a colt into Jerusalem. He doesn't honor then or their authority in the same way that others do. He speaks from His own authority. And perhaps the greatest contrast -- and most maddening aspect to the leadership -- to their expectations, is the fact that Jesus' kingdom is "not of this world." It is not an earthly Kingdom He proclaims, it is a mystical one, one that unites us through and through in the deepest parts of who we are, one that surpasses and expands all that we think of as "reality," and one that permeates and expands beyond all of it and everything we think we know. This is what truly angers these leaders in resentment and envy, because they just haven't got it with them. They don't have what He has. They don't share the joy of His disciples. They don't get it. They are the true stones whose hearts are hardened from understanding and perception, while even the stones themselves on the road would shout for joy should the "children" be silent here. It's a picture of our world as it is today, it's a picture of our lives when we share our own times in turmoil or grief or expectation or fear or anticipation or uncertainty and unknowing. It's a picture of where we are when we fear things we don't understand and can't control. It's a time and place -- at His birth and at His death, as St. Ephrem teaches us -- when every form of rumor abounds and the people live in a kind of darkness of unknowing, into which Jesus enters and stands in our midst, telling us of the Kingdom that is with us and within us and among us. This is the picture or icon of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, which we celebrate on Palm Sunday. We either want to be members of His Kingdom or we reject it. But it's open to anyone who truly desires to enter. He descends into the worst of what the world has to offer; this is a far picture from the paradise of the Garden. And He offers to us His Kingdom, declaring to us the reality and power of the Lord, the manifestation of the Prophets, the embodiment of the praises of David. He is here, with us, in our midst. As human being, He is at birth the intended victim of a murderous rampage, and His death will be a gruesome sharing in the tortures and hideous form of murder a cruel and tyrannical world offers to its enemies. He will go into the world of the dead to liberate them, He comes to us to liberate us, and He declares His mystical reality of His Kingdom which is present to us if we but choose to soften our hearts enough to perceive, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see, as He puts it. Jesus has the power to make the stones cry out. He has the power to break up our stony hearts. But do we trust Him enough (the real root meaning of the Greek word for faith) to show us the way through a world with so much darkness in it?

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